Careful Words

rat (n.)

rat (v.)

I smell a rat.

Thomas Middleton (1580-1627): Blurt, Master-Constable. Act iii. Sc. 3.

  I begin to smell a rat.

Miguel De Cervantes (1547-1616): Don Quixote. Part i. Book iv. Chap. x.

  Not die here in a rage, like a poisoned rat in a hole.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745): Letter to Bolingbroke, March 21, 1729.